lifeinflux

In the last five months, we have run the gamut as far as schooling goes. We started out the year in our local public school, left our public school in March and allowed Drue to “deschool” for six weeks where she lolled about in her pajamas, read a lot of books, spent a few hours a week with her therapist, chased puppies all over the backyard, and watched an unimaginable number of documentaries on marine life and World War II. No wait. That last part about WWII was me. Then came the testing and the observing and the research and discussions about all the different kinds of homeschooling methods and philosophies. Somewhere in all of this, I fell in with this great group of unschoolers who accept me even though I am Type A and write curriculum and lesson plans and align everything to the California Standard Course of Study. They just smile at me and whisper “OCD!” to each other and accept that I am strange in my own way and like me regardless.

And for the most part, Drue has thrived. The sad note is that she seems to have lost most of her friends from public school. Jason and I also lost our “parent base” either because we were out of sight/out of mind, we are “the parents of that girl who slapped that kid” (never mind that Drue got slapped as well) or we’re just weirdos who homeschool in “the best public school system in the country!” Or it might be our stance on protecting the oceans – we’re kind of marine fanatics in this house. We’re hoping the homeschool group we created will bear some friendly fruit and are looking forward to this school year more so than last year. Go figure.  We paid a fortune to move into one of the best school districts and found out that the US public education system let us down.  Good to know it wasn’t just a Virginia thing!

So after a series of BIG steps in the last few months, we just took another and applied to and was accepted in a Charter School. Regardless of what you know or think you know about charter schools, this one supports independent learning (aka homeschooling) but provides you with an Education Specialist who guides you to ensure your child is meeting state curriculum standards, provides state testing, report cards and transcripts and funding. Yes, you read that correctly. We are getting state funds to pay for some of Drue’s homeschool classes.

Now before you FREAK OUT think about this… I pay 38% of my income into the system. We pay into the school district even though Drue no longer attends. Our property and local taxes pay into the school district too – even though Drue no longer attends public school!  So am I comfortable with the fact that I am getting back a tiny fraction of what other children CONSUME in my tax dollars to attend public school here to pay for a small piece of my child’s education? Darn tootin’ I am! But even if I didn’t receive a dime, we are really excited about belonging to this particular charter program. We have a fantastic education specialist who has already proven indispensable in educating me on California’s a-g standards. a-g requirements are usually something a parent concerns themselves with in high school. But it seems my “emotionally immature, math-deficient” child blew threw her review of 4th through 6th grade math in a few months, dominated Advanced Pre-Algebra this summer and qualified for Algebra I and Geometry this fall and spring. What this means, for those of you who don’t remember the math progression through high school,  is that while my kid is sitting in Advanced Algebra II or Trig in 9th grade, those “emotionally mature” kids will  just have completed some form of Algebra I.   I can draw you a chart if you’re confused or just point you here if you need a picture to figure out how this high school math thing works. It might be a little different in your school district but I think you get the general idea.

Since Drue qualifies for Algebra I and Geometry as a 7th grader, we need to find a-g curriculum outside of a normal classroom setting. Usually homeschoolers hit up their local community college to ensure they are taking a-g courses, but Drue does not feel ready to sit in a classroom with 16-30 plus year olds. And frankly, I’m not ready for her to sit in that class either. Luckily, the San Jose School of Russian Mathematics teaches Algebra I and Geometry to kids as early as 7th grade provided they qualify (aka test in and have the necessary grade point average) for the classes. Unfortunately, this particular school is not an “a-g” school. That is where our Education Specialist comes in and we’re looking forward to her help in working around this little problem. Had it been me on my own, I have no idea what I would have done. I do know it would have taken hours of my own research, a lot of stress, time away from my 30 days of fun (yes, that is still going on!) and countless sleepless nights until I figured out a solution. But thanks to our charter school, I have a partner in this who is looking for options and solutions for me. That is complete and total happiness!

Over the summer, I worked for an hour or two (or five or six) each day on this year’s Fall and Spring curriculum and am really happy with it. Not only does Drue have a fast-track science curriculum that includes labs at home and at Rock It Science but she is taking 7th and 8th grade California Science Curriculum this year. It seems when I was not paying attention, Drue downloaded and completed 90% of the California required science curriculum for 7th graders this summer and managed to get perfect scores on every test I could fling at her. Go figure… She also found an ongoing science project to join, a nature studies class to take (plants, birds, and other fun things!), and we have curriculum from friends at the Monterey Bay and Birch Aquarium just in case she gets bored (or just in case she decides that this week, it is a moral imperative for her to concentrate her every waking hour on something pertaining to ocean life). I’ve created her history and societal studies curriculum (more on that later) and ensured we have fun projects, documentaries, museum trips and field trips to show Drue how fun and exciting learning about our past can be! Drue starts Japanese lessons in a few weeks (more on that later) and piano lessons next week. Drue joined a computer class – Introduction to Java Programming – that meets once a week and volleyball begins in September and ends in November whereupon Drue is trying out for Club Volleyball, hoping to get into one of the elite teams. So keep your fingers crossed for her!

All in all, it’s a busy and exciting time. School started for us for the fall on Monday the 15th so we are quickly integrating the new curriculum into our day while Drue attends volleyball clinics.  And because we homeschool, we have trips to the lake house and Irish Beach scheduled. We’re so excited for this fall and all our new adventures, both planned and those that might creep up on us, and I am so thankful that we took this big step into the charter school program.  I’ll post more soon on Drue’s entire curriculum for fall!  Feedback, particularly from my amazing friends who happened to major in history, journalism and linguistics, is most welcome.

Happy learning!